Tilly arrives home off the bus, and drops her school bag at the gate as she races up the driveway in hot pursuit of the cat. Our poor long suffering pet cat Twinkle has both front legs firmly held together as Tilly looks intently and lovingly into her eyes, I don’t get so much as a look in, as she scuttles past me. The funny thing is the cat is actually purring away and does not seem to mind being held in a vice like grip! I guess over the years she has got used to being handled in many different ways by Tilly, one of them being carried around by the neck! This cat has nine lives I think and has lived to tell the tale! Then I notice Bob the bus driver dashing up the drive way carrying some sort of art creation that Tilly had made at school that day. I recognised my shoe box that was now beautifully transformed into a wildlife kiwi bird scene, with a painted forest background and feathery kiwi’s birds complete with eggs in the nest. I was most impressed with Tilly’s art work and know how fascinated she is with kiwi birds, especially after her performance at the school production last year when she dressed up as a kiwi bird and acted out a scene all by herself on stage, which was another moment to be proud.
Anyway I take the kiwi art work into Tilly’s bedroom and have a little chat with her saying what a wonderful job she did and Tilly looks very pleased with herself with a cheeky broad grin on her face as she says “kiwi house “ and then goes on to say “kiwi’s eat worms” and she also points out the eggs to me. So after a while I leave Tilly in her room looking at her artwork, then before I know it Sophie, (my other wonderful eldest daughter) who is simply an angel in disguise most of the time, apart from the teenager jackal and Hyde moments! yells out to me “Mum Tilly has ripped up the art work she did today” I felt a pang of regret leaving it in her room, but hey, I have to accept that when you make something you do have the right to destroy it too, and did I not learn in my early childhood teaching that “it’s the process not the product that counts”.
Anyway I go into Tilly’s room expecting to see bits of cardboard, paper and fluffy feathers everywhere, but no there was nothing, just Tilly under the duvet! So I ask her “where’s the Kiwi house” Tilly giggles for a while and then declares “it’s outside” and sure enough I go out into the garden to find the box with all the wonderful painting work and kiwi’s ripped up in amongst the flower bed.
I will never really know quite why Tilly did this, and that’s one of the most frustrating things about autism for me, is the why did you do that Tilly ? Sometimes using pictures can help explain and link up the communication between us.
A few days later I ask Tilly “why did you rip up the kiwi house” and she laughs and says “because the girl was naughty” ! now I had to giggle at that and be thankful that she did explain why this time.
Bye for now.
